The return of geo-economics: globalisation and national security

There is a growing tendency for governments to view issues of international economics through the prisms of national security and foreign policy.

The GFC was seen not just as an economic catastrophe, but as a security challenge. Other examples of a tendency to mingle economics and geo-politics include policy debates over: the implications of the economic rise of China; Beijing’s exchange rate policy; the rise of state capitalism in general, and of inward investment by SWFs and state owned enterprises in particular; and the growing focus on resource security. In a new Lowy Institute Perspectives, Mark Thirlwell asks whether this heralds the return of geo-economics.